The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife
Lucy Cooke
Basic Books
Nonfiction, Animals/History/Nature/Science
Themes: Anthropomorphism, Avians, Cross-Genre, Religious Themes, Small Animals, Wilderness Tales
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Description
Since humans first began noticing the natural world, misconceptions have abounded - not just in folklore or myths, but in the works of apparent experts and theoretically learned people... and not just in ancient times. It's not all just harmless ignorance, either; bad press and flawed understanding can substantially harm conservation efforts and the future of our planet. Zoologist and author Lucy Cooke examines several species that have borne the brunt of our species's seeming inability to separate fact from fiction and superstition from science, from bats to storks and eels to hippos, even the venerated panda.
Review
Anthropomorphizing nature is one of the oldest human traits, turning them into supernatural agents or morality
lessons or embodiments of our own aspirations or failings or plain old wishful thinking. Unfortunately, this
idealized thinking can prove a serious problem when one is trying to understand the truth, as demonstrated in this
examination of several key species. One would think that we'd be over that by now as a species, or at least science
would be over that as a discipline, with our advanced understanding of so many fields and our increasing awareness
of our own faults, but, as Cooke demonstrates, even in modern times myths and mysteries persist, with many secrets
the natural world is still reluctant to offer up for our edification.
With a focus on the "Western" world's views of nature and how the roots of science and understanding were so
hopelessly entangled with ideas that appear quite ridiculous now (but at the time were often implicitly believed to
be true), Cooke explores the history of natural science and the people who both advanced and regressed the field.
From the notion that eels spontaneously generated in river mud to beavers having hidden human-like communities
complete with law enforcement, many false notions were rooted in the ancient classical world, where armchair experts
repeated travelers tales as gospel truth, often with a dash of moralizing that would be raised to an art form in
medieval bestiaries. Animals like the sloth were dismissed and denigrated by Europeans as "useless", when in fact
their slow-motion lifestyle is such a successful way to survive in their native habitat that it evolved twice, while
bats were treated as agents of evil in much of the world because theoretically intelligent H. sapiens
brains apparently could not wrap their minds around something that couldn't be neatly defined as "beast" or "bird",
and hyenas were considered cowardly and nasty because they just plain look less noble than a lion (who, it turns
out, scavenge hyena kills more often than hyenas scavenge lion kills, despite popular media depictions). Even
scientists in "enlightened" ages often skewed data based on their own religious or moral assumptions, even
deliberately burying observations they deemed "unsuitable" for general knowledge (such as the sex lives of
penguins - especially ironic, given how the nature documentary March of the Penguins was embraced in
conservative circles as depicting an ideal monogamous family). Politics also invariably come into play; for many
years, it was a commonly understood "fact" that North American animals (and, of course, natives) were inferior to
their European counterparts in every conceivable way... a notion that was difficult to dislodge when most of the
"experts" penning natural science resided in Europe. Even today, politics warps popular perceptions: for
instance, "panda diplomacy" has created a highly artificial image of the panda as a cutesy but clumsy and
naturally deficient "teddy bear" in desperate need of human intervention to even reproduce, when in fact human
interference and captive breeding has created an entire population of animals so divorced from their very
capable wild cousins that reintroductions almost invariably end in disaster. (As for the notion they can't even
breed competently, that's yet another result of humans projecting human ideas and moralities onto wild animals;
pandas breed just fine outside of captivity, just not very well in monogamous pairings that are forced on them
in zoos.) The only thing they need from people is to be left alone with sufficient natural habitat to
survive... but that's something nobody seems particularly interested in hearing, let alone doing, even in their
native country. And then there's how people have used/abused animals through the ages, where even the best
intentions often go awry; the African clawed frog, once a boon in the days before simple chemical strip
pregnancy tests, is responsible for the worldwide spread of a toxic fungus devastating global amphibian
populations after they escaped or were released into nonnative environments.
As part of her research, Cooke talked with many working conservationists and scientists who are doing their
level best to dispel old myths and bad press before time runs out on the conservation clock, as it has for too
many species. Misunderstandings and mysteries still plague the field, despite modern technology being brought
to bear on matters such as eel reproduction (a reverse-salmon situation, where adults breed in the ocean and
the young swim upriver to live for years until returning to the Sargasso Sea to breed... though, as of the
book's writing, apparently even now nobody has witnessed the act). There is still so much to learn (and
unlearn), even as a fresh tide of intentional ignorance seems to be rising globally in the form of
authoritarian governments and would-be theocrats gaining traction.
At times, I'd hoped for a little less focus on the "Western" perception of animals, and maybe a little more on
how native populations considered the creatures they lived beside for countless generations (though even they
were not above anthropomorphizing and other misunderstandings). The whole is a plea for humans to step off our
pedestal and actually look at the world around us, that we are part of (little as many seem willing to admit
it). Seen on their own terms, even the "lowest" and "ugliest" animal is valuable and wonderful, with much to
teach us if we're willing to learn... which we can't do until we stop insisting we're the pinnacle to which
all others should kneel in subservience.